Unfortunately, due to a mishap on the mountain last weekend my ski season ended early this year. But that just means that fishing season is starting early! With temps rising into the 40s yesterday and light winds I took a drive up-country to try to catch a fish, check the boat ramps and enjoy some Madison Valley winter solitude. It worked out well.

First stop was at Mcatee bridge where I knew I could walk the bank on some easy flat ground. Wading the Madison with a torn ACL and MCL was not advised by my doctor. I was pleasantly surprised to find calm conditions when I arrived. This time of year, it is really all about the wind. A calm 40-degree day is a much warmer and happier experience than 40 and blowing 15 or 20.

Just back from a quick lunch time Varney to Valley Upper Madison boat ramp tour and wanted to post this update.

Due to the lack of prolonged and extreme cold, the gorge didn’t make it very far up the river this winter….yet...and it seems likely that it won’t at this point. But who knows. For now anyway, the river from Varney to town is floatable and fishable on warmer days when it’s not slushy.

Montana summer is fading fast, and it has been one for the ages. We are very grateful for so many wonderful friends and clients who have helped make this summer great. We would also like to thank Mother Nature for being so benevolent! Once again, here on the Madison we find ourselves in the sweet spot of Montana’s best fly fishing. We had good fishable flows during May, June and the Salmon Fly hatch while many of the region's other rivers and creeks were so high that they were virtually unfishable. Then as things dried up quickly through July and many rivers were put under Hoot-Owl closures (many still remain restricted), the Upper Madison hung tough with good flows, cool water and consistently good fishing.

Well, we got darn close, but never touched the 5,000 CFS mark at Varney last week, thanks in part to a quick cold snap that slowed things down a bit. In fact, the river had virtually no up and down cadence like it typically does from day to day for most of the week, settling down to 3,000 CFS for nearly three and a half days. But my guess is that even though the water clarity has improved, we’re not out of the woods yet. With a week’s worth of sunny skies and 70-degree weather headed our way, we might expect another bump in flows soon.